Battle of Wills???

Last week Olivia started something new. When she would be in a one piece pj she would not let me bend her left leg to change her diaper. She is often silly about diapers and so I didn't think much of it. Then, my sister asked me, "Why doesn't Livvy bend her left leg when she crawls?" I hadn't noticed this. I watched her play and sure enough she didn't bend that leg to crawl or play. When she would walk, it looked like she was mainly standing on the right leg and using the left to balance. I decided I would take her in to see the doctor.

Monday morning I woke up and called the office to see if we could come in. They were closed for Martin Luther King Day. I decided to send a message to the on call doctor to see if this was something to take her to urgent care for, or something that could wait to Tuesday when the doctor was back. The on call doctor felt it could be something bad and I should probably take her in sooner than later, but it was very likely NOT life threatening, so do what I thought best. Let me back up for a moment. When we woke up that morning we looked upside and it had snowed 8 inches or so and it was still falling. Taking Olivia to the doctor meant I had to take Marcus to work and go back and get him later. I DO NOT like driving when the roads haven't been plowed. I decided I would play it safe though and take her into urgent care. After taking Marcus to work, on unplowed roads, we drove over to urgent care (passing a car that spun out about 100 feet in front of us on the way.) We saw the doctor and the doctor felt that something was wrong and Olivia needed x-rays. She also thought that she might need blood work. Instead of doing to x-rays there and then most likely having to send us up to the children's hospital for blood work, she sent us up there for both. Primary Children's does alot more x-rays on children anyway, so they would probably be able to do them better. (Toddlers don't generally like to sit for xrays the way an adult will.) We got back in the car and drove through the still unplowed roads to Primary Children's Hospital. Olivia was admitted to the ER, and the testing began. First the x-rays. No sign of a break. Next blood work for different things, mainly an infection or arthritis. Clean. By the time we reached that point we had been in to ER for 3 hours and at the doctors for about 5. It was 3 in the afternoon and I had not come prepared. I usually bring enough food, drinks, and toys for several children, but I had not been planning on a day at the ER and had drastically underestimated our needs. Luckily, we were able to walk over to the hospital cafeteria and get some lunch. After coming back to our room and eating it we both felt much better.

Anyway, after 4 hours of tests and playing with the baby's leg the doctor diagnosed her, through the process of elimination, with a toddler's fracture. This is a fracture (a break that doesn't not go all the way through the bone) that is often just caused by learning to walk and the weight being put on the leg, or the falling associated with it. The breaks are usually so small that they do not show up in x-ray's until they start healing 7-10 days after they happen. They put a cast/brace on Olivia leg and asked us to come back in a few days to rexray the leg. So that is where we will find ourselves this afternoon, the fracture clinic of Primary Children's Hospital. At least I will be more prepared this time.

I will try to put on a picture of her cast soon.